Sunday Without God (Anime Series)
Directed by Yuuji Kumazawa
Animated by Madhouse
Suitable for 17+
Sunday Without God is not your typical horror anime series. Hell, it’s not even your typical anime series, period. Sure, there are many anime that seem to have an undertone of “just go with it,” but Sunday Without God takes that to a whole new level. But before we get to that, let’s talk about the positives of the series.
The animation style in Sunday Without God is modern and pleasing to look at. As a woman, I’ll admit I’m a fan of the male eye candy the series presents from time to time. Hampnie Hambart anyone? Anyone? Anyway, the series takes place in a simultaneously post-apocalyptic and fantasy universe, so there are plenty of unique sights to ogle. One in particular is a giant city where residents all wear carnival masks. The animators took the time to make all the people walking the streets look interesting rather than just cloning one look over and over. The colors in the series are vibrant, and yet it all looks perfectly believable.
Another factor to the look of Sunday Without God is the opening. Most of us can admit we skip the opening and end credits on a lot of anime because they get rather annoying after a while. Well, the Sunday Without God anime opening and endings prove worth watching because as the series goes on, you start to recognize different characters and locales. This provides the series with a kind of internal easter egg that is quite enjoyable.
The sounds of Sunday Without God are equally well done, with the voice actors fitting their characters. Main character Ai is an incredibly young girl, so she has a suitably high pitched voice that isn’t too shrill (thankfully). The music is another reason why the opening and ending of Sunday Without God are worth watching. The theme songs successfully walk that fine line between annoying and catchy, so you don’t mind hearing them repeatedly.
Where’s the detriment then? Well, Sunday Without God is least successful with its plot and the transitions between arcs. It starts out really strong, setting the tone for a dramatically intense and intriguing series. However, it manages to fizzle out quickly and enters “what the fuck” land. There are technically five story arcs in Sunday Without God, each focusing on a different location within the world. Most are three episodes long, with two exceptions. The “Where Gravekeepers Are Born” segment of the series is only one episode, and falls under the category we so fondly call, “the filler episode.” You know, those episodes where the plot doesn’t really move forward at all, but is still entertaining to watch? These various arcs in Sunday Without God create a severe feeling of disconnect within the series. The first three episodes are fantastic. Remember that strong start we were talking about? Past that, we’re given almost entirely separate stories that don’t lead to the cohesive series we’d like to see.
The beginning of Sunday Without God might be incredibly strange, but it hooks you in immediately. While post-apocalypse is a pretty tired concept, this is a fresh take. As people died and went to heaven, God realized that heaven was getting a little packed. After some time of this, he spoke to the people of this world he created, and told them that there was no more room in the afterlife. No one would die from now on, but they also couldn’t have children. Eventually he felt bad about the whole “oops, heaven’s full” thing, so he created “Gravekeepers” to help people move on. When someone was killed in any way, they wouldn’t actually die, but rather wake up and then be “dead.” Stay with us here. These people could then continue to walk the earth and live out their undead lives in whatever manner they chose. However, there is a belief that if left undead for too long, these people would go crazy and lose themselves. Thus, Gravekeepers are tasked with burying the living dead, finally killing them and allowing them to move on. The series never explains where they’re moving on to, but remember, just go with it.
God says, “Peace out motherfuckers, heaven’s full ya’ll!” People can’t pass on or have kids. But they can still “die” and be zombies without looking like one. God feels bad and says, “Fine, have these Gravekeepers. If they bury ya’ll, you can die and move on, but I won’t tell you where!” before skipping off like the little douche he is and leaving us to fend for ourselves.
If that hasn’t thrown you off enough, the main character of the series is named Ai. She’s a young girl whose mother has died, leaving her to inherit her Gravekeeper title. Ai buries her mother and then begins to dig graves for all the members of her town in preparation for their deaths. The only other thing on Ai’s mind is the one thing her mother told her about her father: his name. That name? Hampnie Hambart, the Man-eating Toy. Again, just go with it.
One day, a mysterious stranger appears in Ai’s town and reveals himself as the enigmatic Hampnie Hambart. She becomes rightfully excited knowing that she has found her long lost father, but this doesn’t last. Hampnie has “killed” every single member of the town that Ai has been calling home. Only then do we find out that all the townspeople were actually already dead, and Hampnie was supposedly doing them a favor. Well, at least Ai didn’t have to wait long to use those graves she’d been digging!
After burying all the townspeople, Ai decides to travel with her father Hampnie. Now, wouldn’t it be disturbingly abrupt if like, right after, her father just died? Well good surprise, that’s literally what happens. Within three episodes of Sunday Without God, Ai hopes to find her father, finds him, he dies, comes back “to life,” they hang out and get to know each other a little better, and she buries him. Well then, seems like a depressing yet adorable coming of age story about a girl searching for her father, right? But that’s only the first three episodes! There are nine more to go! After the jarring realization that the series continues after this, Sunday Without God brings viewers into the next story arc, which is almost completely unrelated.
The ending of Sunday Without God is equally discordant. Ai spends her time saying that she is going to save the world, that it’s her job as a Gravekeeper. This still remains true in the episodes leading up to the finale in that she helps one of her friends with a problem he’s been struggling with for over a decade. However, at the conclusion of the series, the world is not saved. People are still not dying and/or undead. They still cannot conceive children. God still hasn’t returned from his leave of absence. Literally nothing from the series is fully explained. Of course, loose ends don’t always have to be neatly tied up into a bow for something to be enjoyable, but Sunday Without God does not bring a conclusion to anything that is introduced throughout the series.
This is a fairly harsh description of Sunday Without God. Each separate part of the plot is rather enjoyable; it’s just incredibly difficult to get over the disjointed feeling of the overall series. If you can push your way through that feeling, Sunday Without God is actually a thought-provoking series that takes a look at a very different realization of the end of the world. There are zombies that don’t eat brains or human flesh, who look and for the most part act just like regular people. There are fantasy/supernatural elements throughout the series, like a girl who can kill just by looking or talking to someone, and a ghost girl who follows the main characters around for a time. Sunday Without God even has a plot segment devoted to an alternate reality, and an attempt to rescue the people trapped within it. However, the inability to connect all of these thoughts into one cohesive series makes it impossible to recommend Sunday Without God without feeling the “just go with it” guilt.
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